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Table showing location of 4 new elements

The Periodic Table Is Complete!Jan 13, 2016 By Aarathi

The chemistry-lovers are all abuzz! No wonder, with not

one or two, but FOUR new elements formally making

their way into the periodic table.

Last week, the International Union of Pure and Applied

Chemistry (IUPAC) which assesses such new

discoveries, gave the go-ahead to the 4 new elements.

This means your charts of the periodic table just got

outdated!

Revisiting The Periodic Table

An element is a basic building block in nature. All matter, including we human beings, are basically

combinations of different elements. Not surprisingly, all the atoms which make up an element have

identical properties.

But how do we differentiate elements? The nucleus of

every atom contains some positively charged particles

called protons. Different elements have different

numbers of protons, known as ‘atomic number’. This is

the identity of the element. Hydrogen has one proton and

has been assigned the atomic number 1. Similarly,

Helium has 2 protons and is numbered 2; Zinc has 30

electrons and is numbered 30 and so on.

In the 1960’s, Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleev

developed the foundation for the periodic table we know

today. He wrote out cards with each element’s properties and played around with different arrangements.

Inspired by a dream, he drafted a table, arranging the elements into rows and columns. His structure was

so sound, he was even able to accurately predict 2 undiscovered elements and their place in the table.

And he was proved right within 15 years!

Elements are arranged in rows and columns. Reading left to right, the rows display elements in order of

increasing atomic numbers. The columns are called groups, and strangely enough, the elements in a

group behave very similarly during chemical reactions with other elements!

Super-heavy Metals

Of all elements discovered till date, only around half are found in a stable form in nature. Many are

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Mendeleev, Courtesy Wikiepdia

radioactive, especially those with higher numbers of protons. These are

called ‘heavy’ elements and can be detected only for a few seconds as they

decay due to radiation very rapidly. The 4 new elements are in fact

considered super-heavy! They can be measured only when their source

metals are bombarded with ions and so exist only for a fraction of a

second.

Teams of scientists from Russia, USA and Japan worked for years to provethe existence of these elements. They have atomic numbers 113, 115, 117

and 118 and were given temporary names of ununtrium, ununpentium,

ununseptium and ununoctium. You can read more about Element

117 here.

The IUPAC is the world body for chemical sciences and officially recognized

these elements last week. They will now be included in the 7th row of the periodic table and the teams

have been asked to formally name these elements as per the society’s naming protocol.